Infant beds must not only provide comfort but also provide a safe environment in which roaming by an infant is limited to the sleeping area of the bed. Prior art infant beds have relied upon such barriers as guardrails to prevent the infant from leaving the sleeping area of the bed. Various protection devices such as bumpers made of a cushioning material are also used so that the infant does not harm himself on the guardrails. Investigations into crib accidents and bedtime activities of infants have shown that some of these cushion devices come loose, provided footholds, have been of limited effectiveness or have created other hazards.
For portable infant beds, other problems must be addressed. The infant bed must be lightweight and compact enough to be portable. Yet on the other hand, the infant bed still must provide safe confinement for the infant. Prior art portable infant beds include collapsible walls that provide limited structural support for infant restraint. Other prior art portable infant beds require additional guardrails or accessories which limit the portability of the infant bed. With both the collapsible walls and additional guardrails and accessories of the prior art infant beds, many steps are required in deploying the infant bed in a flat bed configuration and packing the infant beds in a portable configuration. These many steps reduce the portability of the infant beds. In past systems, however, infant beds that are easier to deploy and pack have lacked sufficient restraining qualities so that the infant beds are less safe.
It therefore can be appreciated that an infant bed that is both easy to deploy and pack and also provides safe and structurally sound restraint for the infant would be most desirable. The present invention fulfills these needs and further provides other related advantages.